THOUSANDS of workers in York have been hailed by Norwich Union bosses for helping to clock up multi-billion pound sales.

Figures for the 12 months to December showed sales by the York-based life, pensions and investment departments totalled £14.4 billion - six per cent up on last year.

Mark Hodges, chief executive of Norwich Union Life, today praised his 2,500 staff in the city for the results, which maintained a spike in sales in 2006.

The firm says the Government's simplification of the complex tax arrangements on pensions that year meant a rush to take out new policies and a growth spurt of 31 per cent.

The latest results maintain the high plateau "and then some," said Mr Hodges.

"It has meant that over two years we have succeeded in achieving 40 per cent growth."

But he warned that next year's sales of new policies might not be quite so good.

He said: "We were seeing a tough market in the second half of 2007, and our projection is that it will grow to something between above zero and slightly below six per cent."

In spite of shedding 450 jobs from its York operation in 2006, Norwich Union Life had been "pretty steady", said Mr Hodges.

He said the recent move of 150 jobs to its offices in Monks Cross, in Huntington, York, from the firm's base in Cambridge had gone smoothly.

The results were part of the 12-month figures for parent company Aviva, whose total worldwide life and pension sales were up 22 per cent to £31.6 billion, while total worldwide sales of all products soared 25 per cent to £38.6 billion.

In Europe total sales grew 19 per cent to £16.4 billion, while in the US there was a 39 per cent increase in sales to £3.6 billion.